Guardrails on US roads may not be ready for heavy new electric cars
Newsy
Some electric cars can weigh as much as 50% more than a comparable combustion engine vehicle, thanks to their heavy battery packs.
New testing shows that modern electric cars are often too heavy to be stopped by the average guardrail during a crash.
Researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln studied how modern electric vehicles behaved during test crashes against guardrails.
In one test collision, a 7,000-pound Rivian R1T electric pickup barely slowed down as it smashed through a standard steel guardrail.
In another test crash, a Tesla sedan plowed under the guardrail, lifting it over the vehicle.
“We knew it was going to be an extremely demanding test of the roadside safety system,” said Cody Stolle, assistant director of The Midwest Roadside Safety Facility at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. “The system was not made to handle vehicles greater than 5,000 pounds.”
